The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a combined 51M spectators in the United States, Canadian, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this represents the highest-rated World Series Game 7 after the 1991 edition contest between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday memorable contest averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to ratings data, it was the second most-watched program of the week.
It also stands as the top-rated World Series game since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged over 29 million. This marks a sixteen percent improvement over the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game placed fourth, Game 4 was seventh, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in thirteenth place.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the Japanese market, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it drew 12 million. This followed the previous Friday’s sixth game – where Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched World Series game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Totals and Trends
The full seven-game World Series recorded over 15.7 million viewers on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and ‘16 that the Fall Classic has recorded audience increases for two straight seasons.
Including the Game 1 broadcast on Univision, the total American average reached over 16 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full MLB Postseason on Fox and its sister channels drew 8.09M viewers, an eight percent increase compared to the previous year and the network’s strongest postseason ratings after 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
